Graceful Degradation

It can be quite interesting at times to see how a tribute band fares when they decide to try out their own material.  I revisited Trick or Treat's Tin Soldiers recently for example.  Still a damn fine album from the guys who started out as a Helloween tribute act.  I got to thinking about them again today since I've pulled out (from the pile of CDs that has really got quite ridiculous now) an album of the same vintage (2009) by a band that started out and from their blurb still mainly gigs as an AC/DC tribute act.  In both cases they remain quite true to their original inspirations.

Ballbreaker hail from New York State and originally formed way back in 1995.  Daddy Long Legs is their third album of original material.

It's very clear these guys are AC/DC fans.  They seek to capture that sound in their own and can be summed by Old School wherein Ed Spock bellows out intention to rock old school.  But there's also an Alice Cooper theatricality in there as well, although I'm sure they could have come up with something more sinister than a Daddy Long Legs as their pantomime villain since Alice had already laid claim to the Black Widow.

There are a couple of stinkers on here, it has to be said.  B Hole Boogie and Shanghai Shakedown are the cheesiest, least subtle forms of sleaze imaginable, and the latter wouldn't be out of place in a Steel Panther set - and don't forget those guys are deliberately taking the piss.  I can only hope Ballbreaker were too, but I have my doubts.

On the other hand, Light 'Em Up, Old School and It's The Whiskey Talkin' are well worth a listen.  Guilty Pleasure is reasonable as well.  Redline hardly merits its own track since it's effectively a drum solo (just let Jeff Gillette have a decent shot in one of the songs next time guys) so this is quite a short album of eight songs and the drum solo, clocking in at just over 30 minutes.

It seems four years elapsed between Ballbreaker's second album Hangman's Tree and this effort.  In that time and for a band who have been around the block a few times I would have expected better.  Still, it's quite a leap from being purely a tribute band to writing and recording your own music.  On the basis of some of these tracks Ballbreaker haven't completely made the jump yet, but they're getting there.

Five Norwegians, frustrated by the lack of live rock in their neck of the woods, got together a few years ago to play classic rocks songs.  After a while they found they were enjoying themselves so much they started writing their own material.

This EP is the first of release by Electric Woodland, and it's quite promising.  It's very much in the vein of classic 70s rock and being a bit rough around the edges captures that sound quite well.  Hints of The Doors (especially on Another Brick in Your Puzzle), Deep Purple and Black Sabbath with some riffs which have a ZZ Top sound to them.

The song-writing does need a bit of work but it's early days yet.  I do really like the way the four tracks sound, and would hope Electric Woodland avoid the danger of overproduction on future releases.  Something like Sharp Angle wouldn't work half as well if it was too polished.